Sunday, October 2, 2016

Two Great Portland Urban Hikes…

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One of the things we love most about Portland are its iconic neighborhoods. We feel there is no better way to get to know them than by urban hiking. Fortunately the Portland Metro has a slew of hikes to choose from complete with small maps and a bit of info about the neighborhood. Better yet we found a web page which highlights 10 of the them as 10 enticing hikes in Portland.

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The first urban hike we chose to do was the Laurelhurst Neighborhood in southeast Portland. This is one of Portland's most popular neighborhoods due to its more established vibe. It is an older Portland neighborhood close to downtown with lots of restaurants and stores. The area is  beautifully landscaped with lots of cool homes.

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We noticed many different architectural styles along with eclectic landscaping so we thoroughly enjoyed our walk.There was everything from large mansion styled homes to smaller Tudor styled homes with quaint covered front porches. Then right in the middle of the neighborhood lies Laurelhurst park, a magnificent park with giant stately trees unlike any neighborhood we have ever been in.It is like an arboretum! 

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We next passed by a roundabout with a brilliant golden Joan d’Arc statue. Our walk also pointed us to numerous heritage trees such as a giant Popular tree, Japanese Zelkova and Japanese Red Pine as well as a several others we somehow missed along the hike.

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To finish the day we just had to revisit Base Camp Brewing to see if they still had their S’more Stout. They did! It was as tasty and sinful as we both remembered. What a great way to end  a day in one of our favorite large USA cities, Portland!

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The next day we decided to hike  Westmoreland to Crystal Springs and Reed Canyon including Reed College. After walking through the neighborhood our first neat stop was at the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. This 60 year old garden is near the Eastmoreland Golf Course. What a beautiful serene place it was as we strolled along the paths around a small lake with lots of ducks and geese milling about. The houses along this walk were interesting but not as much as in Laurelhurst but very enjoyable nonetheless..

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Next up was Reed College where we walked around the fairly active campus and took a few photos of some of their interesting buildings. There is a lake and creek along what is known as Reed Canyon but the area didn’t entice us to investigate it further. After returning to the car we drove over to a new brewery to us called Migration Brewing. They were featuring a fresh hops beer called Fresh Outta Portland and man was it ever good. That IPA tasted just like fresh hops smell… best IPA ever! Since it was a small batch, growler fills weren’t allowed, Otherwise we would have filled two!  We can’t wait for our next walk as everyday spent in Portland has reaffirmed our love of this wonderful city!

NOTE: We are currently in Portland Oregon where at the Columbia River RV Park where we will leave on Tuesday, October 4th.

2 comments:

  1. I see a little bit of blue sky so I know it wasn't taken Sunday! :)

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  2. We've also had the chance to enjoy the Rhododendron Gardens, but have not taken in the interesting architecture you have. Seems we are usually just passing thru ...

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